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Carlos Ghosn’s Daughters See a Nissan Revolt Behind His Arrest -- Pictures

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Carlos Ghosn, the ousted chairman of Nissan, with his daughters Nadine, left, and Caroline. He also has another daughter, Maya, and a son, Anthony.CreditCreditGhosn Family

Mr. Ghosn in 1996 with, from left, Caroline, Anthony, Maya and Nadine. The family was living in Greenville, S.C., at the time, but the children consider Tokyo their hometown.CreditGhosn Family

Anthony, Nadine and Caroline, right, with their father in Tennessee in 2015. Referring to his life in a jail cell, Caroline Ghosn said, “Every detail we learn is heartbreaking.”CreditGhosn Family

by nytimes.com -- By Amy Chozick -- The children of Carlos Ghosn, the jailed auto executive who oversaw an alliance that sold more than 10 million cars a year, believe accusations of financial misconduct against him are part of a revolt within Nissan against exploring a possible merger with Renault. Caroline Ghosn, the eldest of Mr. Ghosn’s four children, said that when she saw Hiroto Saikawa, the chief executive of Nissan, condemn her father during a televised news conference after his arrest, she suspected that Nissan’s investigation was rooted in opposition to proposed changes to the Nissan-Renault alliance and “the merger my dad was setting up.” “For Saikawa to so adamantly denounce someone who had been his mentor and then immediately without any benefit of the doubt condemns him?” Ms. Ghosn, 31, said in a phone interview. An entrepreneur, she had awakened hours before that briefing to the news that her father, who was Nissan’s chairman and Renault’s chief executive, had been arrested on suspicion of violating Japan’s financial reporting laws. She and her sister Maya Ghosn, 26, do not have direct knowledge of their father’s business discussions, but both said watching Mr. Saikawa address the national news media had cemented their belief that internal company dynamics were at play.

Mr. Saikawa told the reporters that one problem with the alliance was that “the top of Renault is concurrently serving as the top of Nissan with 43 percent of shares.” In the future, he said, the company would “look for a more sustainable structure.” “Wow,” Caroline Ghosn said. “He didn’t even waste a breath. He didn’t even try to cover up the fact that the merger had something to do with this.” Maya Ghosn, who works in philanthropy, agreed. As Mr. Saikawa was “talking about the alliance, it was clear to me that there was way more associated with it,” she said. “My gut reaction was that this was bigger than the accusations against my dad.” The interviews were the first time since the arrest that the sisters, now living in San Francisco, have spoken publicly about their father, who was deposed as chairman of the board of Nissan after creating an empire that included Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi.

Mr. Ghosn, 64, was arrested on Nov. 19 as he arrived in Tokyo for a board meeting. He was later charged with underreporting his compensation for several years in securities filings and has been detained in Tokyo. Nissan’s internal investigation of what it calls “substantial and convincing evidence of misconduct” has taken on global dimensions, encompassing teams of compliance people who have tried to secure potential evidence at residences used by Mr. Ghosn, including an apartment in Rio de Janeiro. “Our own investigation is ongoing, and its scope continues to broaden,” the company said in a statement Friday, suggesting that Mr. Ghosn’s legal problems could deepen. His family maintains he is innocent. Like Mr. Ghosn, Greg Kelly, a Nissan board member, was indicted on financial misconduct changes. Nissan was indicted, too, and said it would review its compliance procedures. Asked to respond to the Ghosn daughters’ claims — that animosity about a potential merger drove Nissan’s investigation — Nicholas Maxfield, a company spokesman, said: “These claims are baseless. The family would never have had any reason to be privy to discussions related to the future of Nissan and the alliance.” “The cause of this chain of events is the misconduct led by Ghosn and Kelly,” Mr. Maxfield said. “During the company’s internal investigation into this misconduct, the prosecutor’s office began its own investigation and took action.” (Asked specifically whether a merger had been discussed, Mr. Maxfield said a previously announced six-year plan had called for “additional synergies and further convergence among the member companies.”)

Another Career Milestone: Nadine Labaki is the First Arab Woman to Become Eligible for an Oscar

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by abouther.com --Nadine Labaki recently became the first Arab female filmmaker to make an Oscars shortlist. Her film, “Capharnaüm,” was included in the list for the Best Foreign Language film category. While 87 countries submitted entries for the category, just nine films made the cut. And her feat could lead Labaki, who is also an actress and screenwriter, to become the first Arab woman to be officially nominated at the Oscars. The formal nominations will be announced on January 22. The award-winning filmmaker, who grew up in Beirut, took to Instagram to express her excitement and thank the Academy. “What an incredible moment in our film’s journey and a major milestone for Lebanese and Arab cinema. After years of research, tears and sweat, long production hours and sleepless nights, our film has been recognized on this year’s Foreign Language #Oscar shortlist among 8 other films from a selection that exceeded 80 submissions from all around the world. We couldn’t be prouder.” The Insult by Ziad Doueiri was shortlisted last year, making “Capharnaüm” the second film from Lebanon to ever be selected. “What an incredible moment in our film’s journey and a major milestone for Lebanese and Arab cinema!” a post from the film’s official Twitter account read. The eight other films “Capharnaüm” is up against include Mexico’s Roma, Shoplifters from Japan, South Korea’s Burning, and Cold War from Poland.

The announcement came just weeks after “Capharnaüm” landed a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture - Foreign Language, making it the first Lebanese film to get a nod at the important awards ceremony. Earlier this year Labaki also made history while at the Cannes Film Festival. She became the first female Arab filmmaker and only the second woman to ever pick up the Jury Prize. The emotional fictional film, which received a reported 15-minute standing ovation at its premiere screening in Cannes, is about 12-year-old Zain. The boy, played by Syrian refugee Zain Al Rafeea, has to resort to stealing and begging to survive on the streets of Beirut and faces a gloomy and loveless existence. The charged drama sees the mistreated boy suing his parents in court for bringing him into the world when they can’t raise him properly. In flashbacks, Labaki, who was inspired by things she had seen and people she had met, reveals the terrible struggles Zain, who is facing a jail term, has been through since the day he was born.

As well as “Capharnaüm,” which means a “disorderly accumulation of objects" in Arabic, Labaki, who graduated in audiovisual studies from Beirut’s Saint Joseph University, is behind two other social dramas, Caramel and Where Do We Go Now? She took advantage of a residency at the Cannes Film Festival to write Caramel, her first feature, which premiered at the Directors' Fortnight during the festival’s 2007 edition and became a huge international hit. Where Do We Go Now? premiered within the festival’s Un Certain Regard category in 2011. She has also made a number of award-winning adverts and music videos.

Will a robot takes your job?

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by learningsolutionsmag.com -- What if the robots were coming—not to take our jobs, but to help us do our jobs better? Virtual assistants, cropping up in homes and offices everywhere, already use AI (artificial intelligence) to automate mundane tasks. As cognitive computing evolves, natural language processing engines improve, and areas of AI are combined into new and creative applications, the ways that AI can boost performance on the job are innumerable. Rather than displacing human employees, these technologies could increase employee efficiency and improve productivity.

Chatbots take over repetitive tasks

Asking a phone or smart speaker to look up information, send a text or email, or set a timer is second nature to many people. In the office, smart assistants, on phones, tablets, or laptops, can arrange meetings, connect participants in conference calls, and send messages. In customer service, chatbots are ubiquitous, managing phone call routing and simple problem solving, and chatting with customers online—saving time that humans can spend on addressing the more challenging issues that arise. Chatbots have made inroads in eLearning as well, providing coaching, repetitive learning drills, training reinforcement, task reminders, and other services to new and experienced employees. These verbal assistants might be ready for a promotion, though; some chat-based tools already offer a deeper level of aid.

AI engine assists with onboarding

Universities across the US are turning to chatbots to assist with their equivalent to new employee onboarding: helping new students navigate the admissions process and get acclimated to college, which includes completing a raft of paperwork and administrative processes. In Artificial Intelligence Across Industries: Where Does L&D Fit, Guild research director Jane Bozarth describes AI-based tools that assist students with coursework and answer common questions. Many students never realize their “helper” isn’t human. Similarly, corporations are increasingly turning over some repetitive onboarding tasks to AI-based support tools. Companies that hire large numbers of employees can automate processes like reminding new employees to fill out a range of forms, teaching them about safety regulations and company policies, and getting them registered for various benefits. AI-based performance support can bolster training as well, with targeted quizzes, reminders, and questions. New Comcast sales reps get help from a chatbot to bolster the training they receive during ride-alongs with more senior employees, for example. The mobile training sends the new hires open-ended questions; they discuss their responses, and their observations from the day, with their managers or mentors.

Christmas in Lebanon: ‘Jesus Isn’t Only for the Christians'

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By Vivian Yee and Hwaida Saad -- nytimes.com -- BEIRUT — The Iranian cultural attaché stepped up to the microphone on a stage flanked by banners bearing the faces of Iran’s two foremost religious authorities: Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, and Ayatollah Khamenei, the current supreme leader. To the left of Ayatollah Khomeini stood a twinkling Christmas tree, a gold star gilding its tip. Angel ornaments and miniature Santa hats nestled among its branches. Fake snow dusted fake pine needles. “Today, we’re celebrating the birth of Christ,” the cultural attaché, Mohamed Mehdi Shari’tamdar, announced into the microphone, “and also the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.” “Hallelujah!” boomed another speaker, Elias Hachem, reciting a poem he had written for the event. “Jesus the savior is born. The king of peace, the son of Mary. He frees the slaves. He heals. The angels protect him. The Bible and the Quran embrace.” “We’re celebrating a rebel,” proclaimed a third speaker, the new mufti of the Shiite Muslims of Lebanon, the rebel in question being Jesus.

The mufti, Ahmed Kabalan, went on to engage in some novel religious and political thinking: Christians and Muslims, he said, “are one family, against corruption, with social justice, against authority, against Israel, with the Lebanese Army and with the resistance.” The proclamations from the stage were applause lines — perhaps against the odds, given that the audience at the Iranian-sponsored event on Saturday consisted mostly of observant Shiites from the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut. Occasionally, the crowd chanted praise for the Prophet Muhammad. When a pair of Iranian bands flown in for the occasion began playing Assyrian and Persian Christmas carols, the audience clapped along. From its founding as an independent republic, Lebanon has walked a tightrope, not always successfully, with its Muslim and Christian populations making up most of the country’s 18 officially recognized sects. Sign up for The Interpreter Subscribe for original insights, commentary and discussions on the major news stories of the week, from columnists Max Fisher and Amanda Taub. Nearly 30 years after the end of a civil war in which Beirut was cloven into Muslim and Christian halves connected only by a gutted buffer zone, Lebanese from all different sects now commonly mingle every day at home, at work and in public. But few seasons frame the everyday give-and-take of religious coexistence quite like Christmas time in Lebanon.

This is the new Microsoft

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By Dave Gershgorn -- qz.com -- Microsoft has a real shot to end the year as the most valuable public company in the world. That wasn’t the case a year ago, and it would have seemed absurd five years ago, when the company was being leapfrogged by burgeoning behemoths like Amazon and Google. The last time Microsoft was the most valuable company in the world was 2000, before being eclipsed by GE in the dot-com bust. But Microsoft is back. Its place as “most valuable public company” isn’t one that was earned on the back of red-hot earnings report or a disruptive product—Microsoft has a drastic market sell-off of its competitors, a clear vision, and aggressive sustained growth to thank for the title. Its stock is up 20% from the beginning of the year.

It’s a signal to the company—and the world—that Microsoft isn’t just the maker of Windows and Microsoft Office anymore. Microsoft’s growing cloud business, in which it rents server space and enterprise software to other companies, is a bright spot on its quarterly earnings reports, with more than 20% growth year over year, according to company filings. Azure, the aspect of the cloud business focused on artificial intelligence and software deployment, is growing in the high double digits every quarter, with 74% year over year growth as of October’s earnings report. Microsoft’s cloud business now has a $27 billion run-rate. This new emphasis on cloud computing has also given Microsoft the opportunity to pivot its consumer and business products to subscription-based services, because the business model relies on cloud storage of documents and incremental updates to the software. Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics 365, its suite of businesses tools, are now both sold as subscriptions, which means more recurring revenue rather than companies buying the software once and not paying again for years. These software packages naturally tie into Microsoft’s other cloud services, giving it the opportunity to sell more storage space or integrated software.

These business tools are still paying the bills—cloud revenue counts for less than a third of the company’s total revenue as of October. Productivity and business tools brings in a third, and the last third is made of a cocktail of other revenue, including Microsoft’s growing hardware business, which consists of Xbox and Surface. Gaming revenue grew 44% year over year in October, mostly from software like games and Xbox Live subscriptions. And Microsoft’s own computers are finally getting their time in the sun. While the Surface line of computers had received lukewarm reception from tech reviewers in the past, the Surface Laptop 2, Surface Go, and Surface Book 2 all got glowing reviews in 2018. It’s hard not to point toward Nadella as the impetus of these changes. After being CEO for four years, the stock price has soared and the company has focused on high-growth revenue streams like the cloud. Windows, which represents Microsoft’s software dominance in a bygone age, has been sidelined. Even the culture, which under previous CEO Steve Ballmer was hostile towards other platforms and operating systems, has changed. Nadella uses an iPhone on stage (gasp), and this year bought GitHub, a forum for code, for $7.5 billion. It’s a nod to a more intersectional Microsoft, one that’s more interested in code of all kinds, rather than promoting just its own platform. This comes two years after Nadella made Microsoft’s largest deal ever, its $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn. The year ahead looks bright for the 43-year-old company. It’s likely to hit the coveted $1 trillion in market cap, which Apple and Amazon both touched for a short while in 2018. And with a level of enviable sustained growth, 2020 might look just as bright.

The best HR is invisible

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By Lars Schmidt fastcompany.com -- There was a time not long ago when “getting HR involved” generally meant diffusing an employee relations issue. Twentieth-century HR was all about control, enforcing compliance around hiring, training, development, performance, talent management, culture, holiday parties, facilities, and more. The HR function was generally reactive rather than strategic. Times have changed. The rise of 21st-century HR has given birth to a new breed of HR executive, with a much broader skill set, who is leading the transformation of what’s possible in the field and reinventing HR as a data-driven strategic function critical to an organization’s success. This shift removes some of the us versus them friction that framed HR as an outlier to the business functions and embraces a new approach based on partnership, accountability, and shared outcomes. You can trace the tipping point of this shift back to the creation of one particular position: the HR business partner role. Rather than keeping HR isolated as a centralized team, this model embedded HR practitioners inside the business functions they support, allowing them to integrate more deeply into business units. These embedded relationships allowed HR executives to have a much clearer view on an organization’s health, turnover risks, and culture shifts–enabling them to be more proactive in addressing challenges and developing people strategies more closely aligned with the organization’s mission and goals.

Contemporary HR is more focused on providing strategic value to drive business outcomes. The focus is less on control and ownership, and more on understanding and aligning the people strategy to business goals, supporting and empowering the employees to do their best work. Here is a look at several organizations with HR practices that reflect this shift in approach.

Square

In ultra-competitive Silicon Valley, the battle for talent is legendary. If hiring, talent development, and retention aren’t priorities for the executive team, you have little chance of success. Few know this better than Bryan Power, a veteran HR executive who led global people teams at Google, Square, and Yahoo. Early in his career, Power worked for a product executive at Google who assigned strategic HR outcomes to each of his direct reports–hiring to one person, talent management to another, employee communications to a third, etc. This created a structure that made each leader accountable for the development of the global organization. Later, at Square, Power implemented a similar ownership mentality as the company designed programs and built processes to scale out of the startup phase. Like most fast-growing tech companies, Square had many new managers who were quickly expanding into leadership roles for the first time. Power understood that their success would be largely driven by his team’s ability to get them trained as managers as quickly as possible. He also understood that for these new managers to take this development challenge seriously and invest the right amount of time and commitment, it had to be driven by the top. So Power and his team enlisted the company’s top executives including Square’s CEO and key members of the executive team to teach manager training modules. “When managers think of these people challenges as their own issues to resolve, rather than issues for HR to solve,” Power says, “that ownership and accountability transforms the organization.”

Why Blockchain is Hard

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by Jimmy Song -medium.com -- The hype around blockchain is massive. To hear the blockchain hype train tell it, blockchain will now:

Solve income inequality Make all data secure forever

Make everything much more efficient and trustless

Save dying babies

What the heck is a blockchain, anyway?

And can it really do all these things? Can blockchain bring something amazing to industries as diverse as health care, finance, supply chain management and music rights? And doesn’t being for Bitcoin mean that you’re pro-blockchain? How can you be for Bitcoin but say anything bad about the technology behind it? In this article, I seek to answer a lot of these questions by looking at what a blockchain is and more importantly, what it’s not. What is a blockchain? To examine some of these claims, we have to define what a blockchain is and herein lies a lot of the confusion. Many companies use the word “blockchain” to mean some sort of magical device by which all their data will never be wrong. Such a device, of course, does not exist, at least when the real world is involved. So what is a blockchain? Technically speaking, a blockchain is a linked list of blocks and a block is a group of ordered transactions. If you didn’t understand the last sentence, you can think of a blockchain as a subset of a database, with a few additional properties.

The main thing distinguishing a blockchain from a normal database is that there are specific rules about how to put data into the database. That is, it cannot conflict with some other data that’s already in the database (consistent), it’s append-only (immutable), and the data itself is locked to an owner (ownable), it’s replicable and available. Finally, everyone agrees on what the state of the things in the database are (canonical) without a central party (decentralized). It is this last point that really is the holy grail of blockchain. Decentralization is very attractive because it implies there is no single point of failure. That is, no single authority will be able to take away your asset or change “history” to suit their needs. This immutable audit trail where you don’t have to trust anyone is the benefit that everyone that’s playing with this technology is looking for. This benefit, however, come at a great cost.